Should Everyone Go To College?

Emerging adults have difficult decisions to make regarding higher education. Proponents of college education tell us a degree means higher wages, while skeptics say educational expenses and delays in earning wages make college a poor investment.

It’s true: College is increasingly expensive and stressful as students try to compete with greater numbers of their peers to get into reputable schools, they face mental health problems at alarming rates, graduates face crushing debt, and the job market for college grads is bleak. Why should any of us want to endure college?

Is higher education even a good investment? College is usually not job training- with notable exceptions like teaching degrees, engineering, and nursing. Studying English or art or math is rarely enough to qualify new graduates for specific careers. And even for those who graduate with credentials qualifying them for jobs, successfully graduating college never guarantees employment. Why bother with an expensive bachelor’s degree when technical schools train students for careers with less investment of time or money?

In order to weigh to pros and cons, emerging adults need to consider the benefits of a college education beyond career and finances. College may be a step toward your growing maturity.

Psychological benefits of college:

A place to explore the self

One of the major tasks of young adulthood is “finding” oneself. But it’s hard to find yourself while steeped in the identity the family assigns. Likewise, it can be difficult to explore self-identity while working at a low paying job and struggling to pay the bills. For many, college provides an opportunity to explore the self away from family, without all the pressures of adult responsibility. Attending traditional college can be a chance to break away from parents and explore one’s self while still benefitting from parental support. Young adults discover their beliefs separate from the family, and then build relationship styles and vocations. They can experience a sense of independence without taking on the full range of pressures of adult responsibility.

A place to grow before solidly setting down roots for an adult life

College often serves as a stage in between adolescence of independent adulthood. College students take on some of the responsibilities of independence, like making meals and managing time. But they don’t have to make big life choices, like choosing careers, until later. College provides a phase in between adolescence and adulthood, neatly demarcated by the years in school. By the end of the education, young adults are more ready to face big life decisions.

Learning how to learn, rather than being taught

In high school, students are often fed information by teachers and then asked to repeat it back for exams. In college, learning is an increasingly solitary activity. Students attend classes and then read and prepare for exams without much guidance. Alone in the library, students learn which information is preferred test material. They structure their study hours without many daily assignments as guideposts. College students teach themselves the material.

The opportunity to become a lifetime learner

As students choose a course of study through the selection of a major, they gain the opportunity to become lifetime learners. Colleges and universities afford students the chance to explore the concepts for which they have an interest or an aptitude rather than requiring every student to learn foundational material. Many students become more engaged and excited learners when they focus in their interests.

Exposure to students from diverse cultural backgrounds

Colleges and universities draw students from diverse backgrounds. Students come from urban and rural areas near and far, and there commonly students from a variety of foreign lands. Exposure to cultural diversity can enhance tolerance and international cultural awareness, positives for any well-adjusted young adult.

College is about more than academics, but it still may not be the best route for every young adult. As young adults consider whether college a good investment, you may also consider how you can explore your self-identity, learn to learn independently, and have exposure to cultural diversity through venues other than college. Many young adults mature through other means, such as time in the armed services, living away from parents and working, and learning cultural values from the family.

There are many, many professions which require years of advanced education. Doctors, vets, and engineers are just a few. But now every job, besides manual labor or flipping burgers, requires at least an associates degree.
A living wage almost demands a bachelor's degree. I makes you almost wonder how the Greatest Generation won WWII when so few if them had college degrees!

Some might argue that "jobs are more complex nowadys, requiring more knowledge skills information management than before". To which I call " BS"; most jobs have only become more simplified, less absorbing, and require less time to master. Knowledge management skills required by most jobs todatmy is on par with what many kids understand coming out of high school.

The "college for all" push is unconsciously driven by two intertwined factors—so intertwined that one directly feeds the other.

1. NEVERENDING POPULATION GROWTH
2. COMPETITION CULTURE

All societies are finite. Meaning they can only grow so much before all meaningful roles are filled. There are only so many finite slots at Harvard or Yale or Princeton. There are only so many slots at large law firms or research labs or upper management. Decades ago, the pool of available candidates for most jobs was much, much smaller (white males only). More women and minorities expanded the labor pool considerably, and increased competition. However, this only makes up a part of a human overwhelmbin our society.
No matter how dire the economy, how bad we complain the job market is, we simply refuse to stop breeding uncontrollably. The birth rate may decline a few points, but it is never enough to acknowledge that automation is not going away, that offshoring will continue, that many of us simply cannot afford to have children. As a result, plentiful jobs will never re-emerge. And as a result, our competition culture can (because labor supply far outstrios demand) set ever higher bars and requirements for what jobs remain. Our biological selfishness is killing what prosperity might exist.